


my gods look like you

by yuhaholic



Series: gang gang squa squa [3]
Category: PRISTIN (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: F/F, featuring members of minkyung's gang and eunwoo, minkyung is in a gang and yaebin is a nursing student and guess what? they're in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 17:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19045129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuhaholic/pseuds/yuhaholic
Summary: five times yaebin says she loves minkyung and one time minkyung says it back++you don't necessarily have to read the whole series, but it would help with, like, context and stuff





	my gods look like you

**Author's Note:**

> they ask you how you are and you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine but you just can't get into it because they would never understand
> 
> title from 1950 by king princess, stream it on spotify

i.

Yaebin gets a key to Minkyung’s house the summer after her freshman year of college because she’s over there so often it might as well be her permanent residence. She got a job at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble a couple miles away, and she gets off at five, so she comes back and lets herself in through the side door straight into the kitchen. 

There’s shattered glass on the tile floor and blood smeared on the table and the whole room is just a general mess. It’s not super unusual but it is alarming, so she quietly closes and locks the door behind her. She goes into the living room to see Mingyu on the couch with a package of frozen peas on his face. 

“Hey,” she says. 

Mingyu cranes his neck to look at her. “Hey.” 

Yaebin and Mingyu have gotten close over the years. They’ve come a long ways from the hungover boy who opened his front door to find a breathless little girl. Yaebin supposes that it’s normal for people to be friends with their significant other’s siblings, especially if they’re twins as close as Minkyung and Mingyu. After Yaebin was tasked with taking care of Mingyu when he broke his leg doing god knows what, they started to hang out a lot, even without Minkyung, and they already spent a lot of time together since they basically live in the same house. They’re good friends, maybe best friends. 

“What - uh, what happened?” Yaebin asks. 

“I got in a fight,” Mingyu says, like it happens all the time, and it probably does.

“Okay. You gonna clean that up or should I?” Yaebin asks. Mingyu waves a hand dismissively so she grabs a broom from the closet and starts brushing the glass into a corner. “Is the other guy okay?” 

“Like I give a shit,” Mingyu mumbles. 

Yaebin sweeps the glass into a Hefty bag and drops it in the trash. “You got work tonight?” 

“It’s okay, my legs are fine,” Mingyu says. He doesn’t have to strip at the club in Inglewood anymore since the laundromat and coffee house are doing fine but he says he made some friends there, and no one minds the extra income. 

“Yeah, and how good are tips when you have a fucked up face?” 

“Better, probably, I’ll say I got beaten by my dad or something.”

“Capitalizing off of your own abuse is deplorable.”

“Yo, it’s a hard world, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive.”

Yaebin finishes wiping down the table and sets the paper towels back on their holder before grabbing the first aid kit from the top of the refrigerator and going back to Mingyu. 

“Am I right in assuming that you don’t want Minkyung seeing you like this?” she asks, taking the frozen peas away from his face. He winces and nods. “You wanna talk about it?” 

“No.” 

Yaebin dabs some alcohol on a pad of gauze and cleans up the scratch on Mingyu’s cheek. “You hurt anywhere else or is it just your face?” 

“Can’t lift my left arm above my head,” Mingyu tells her. 

“Oh, come on, man, how are you supposed to grind on closeted creeps without your left arm?” Yaebin laughs and Mingyu humors her. “You want me to put a bandaid on it or do you want to show it off?” 

“It looks sexy, right?” Mingyu replies, starting to grin. 

Yaebin raises her eyebrows. “I’m the wrong person for you to be asking about that.” She finishes cleaning him up and closes the first aid kit. “Go up to your room and pretend to sleep so Minkyung won’t see.” 

“Did you really just tell me to go to my room?” Mingyu says. 

“Uh, yes, go,” Yaebin says, gesturing to the stairs. “Minkyung’s gonna be home any minute and if she sees your face, she’s gonna make it worse.” 

Mingyu hobbles up the stairs and Yaebin has to hold herself back from laughing at him. Minkyung comes in through the front door minutes later with grocery bags in her arms. She looks worn the fuck out but her face brightens when she sees Yaebin on the couch. 

“Ralph’s got a shipment of meat today, so we got dinner for the next week,” she says cheerfully. “Where’s Mingyu?” 

“I think he’s sleeping in his room,” Yaebin says casually. She gets up to help Minkyung put away the groceries. “Was there a sale?”

Minkyung looks at her. “Do you actually want me to answer that?” 

“I guess not.” Yaebin grabs Minkyung by the waist and pulls her into a hug. “I missed you today.” 

“Yeah, well, I missed you too, bitch, you’re not special,” Minkyung replies. She presses a quick kiss to the top of Yaebin’s head and maneuvers around to put the rest of the meat in the fridge without leaving the hug. “How was work?” 

“Five hours of serving overpriced coffee and cold, shitty pastries,” Yaebin mumbles into Minkyung’s shoulder. “I mean, at least I look cute in the uniform.” 

“Oh, yeah, you really do,” Minkyung agrees. 

“How was your work?” Yaebin asks. 

Minkyung sighs and leans forward to wrap her arms around Yaebin. “Fucking tiring. Joshua made me go on a laundromat run and apparently there was a fight in the coffee house for the fifteen minutes I was gone, which, of course, is my fault.”

“Nothing is your fault, you’re perfect and beautiful and I love you,” Yaebin says. 

Minkyung’s breath hitches at the casual confession. Neither of them say it often, Yaebin isn’t sure if Minkyung has ever said it. She doesn’t expect to get anything in return but she’s still a little disappointed when Minkyung remains silent. 

The kitchen door slams open. “Oh, gross, what are you doing?” 

“Hello, Kyungwon,” Minkyung says with a sharp edge to her voice. “What can I do for you?” 

“I need a shank,” Kyungwon says, without offering any further explanation. “Or, like a screwdriver. Something that can stab.” 

“What the fuck, why?” Minkyung asks. She finally lets go of Yaebin, who sits down at the table and watches on with wide eyes. 

“Why do you need to know?” Kyungwon shoots back. 

Minkyung sighs and starts rooting through one of the cabinets. “I got knives.” 

“Make it big.” 

“The fuck are you gonna do with it, gut a deer?” 

“I’m gonna gut you if you keep asking questions!” 

 

ii.

Yaebin gets back to the house late one day after having dinner with her parents to see Minkyung walking down the driveway with purpose. Her eyes are a fiery kind of shiny and she has her hands clenched into fists at her sides like she’s just barely able to control them. 

“Hey, where are you going?” she asks. 

“Gotta run an errand,” Minkyung bites back, storming past her. 

Yaebin looks at Minkyung, then to the house, then back at Minkyung and decides to run after her. “A laundromat run?” 

“Coffee house. I need to find some dude named Charlie Bauer,” Minkyung tells her roughly. Two years ago, she would have said absolutely nothing about it, but now she trusts Yaebin so completely that almost everything she does is shared. Keeping secrets from each other isn’t even considered an option, ever. “He hit one of the girls at the rub-n-tug, Yewon says he lives on Palm.” 

“Oh, I know him, he’s in the big blue house,” Yaebin says. “Who’d he hit? Is she okay?” 

“That Vietnamese girl who got in a couple months ago got some nasty bruises she wouldn’t tell us about until we gave her fifty fucking dollars.” They turn the corner and Yaebin runs to keep up. Minkyung walks fast in general but she walks even faster when she’s angry, and Yaebin’s already at a disadvantage with her shorter legs. “I’m so sick of shitbags coming in and thinking they can do whatever they want just because they’re paying. Eighty bucks gets you a blowjob, not a fucking BDSM scene.” 

“Your rates have gone up,” Yaebin remarks. She’s not sure if she should comment on anything else, so she doesn’t. 

“Yeah, because my girls are fucking worth it. They’re hookers, not slaves,” Minkyung snaps. They get to Palm and head to the big blue house where are a few guys on the porch drinking beer. They don’t seem to notice the girls and are laughing in that obnoxious way men laugh when they’re buzzed. “Which one is Charlie Bauer?” 

“The redhead,” Yaebin tells her. 

Minkyung jogs up to the porch and all three men stand up, like they have any chance to fight her off. Charlie doesn’t even have time to say anything before Minkyung punches him hard in the stomach and grabs his head to bring his face against her knee when he doubles over. 

“You like hitting girls, shitbag?” she snarls as he falls to the floor. “You hurt one of my girls again and I’m not gonna go so easy on you.” 

“I was getting what I paid for,” Charlie spits out, blood and saliva pooling in his mouth. “It’s not my fault your whores can’t handle it.” 

“You like it rough, huh?” Minkyung brings her heel down on the back of his head, smashing his face against the ground. “You like your girls bloody and bruised, you can go to a spa in fucking Orange County, alright? When you're at my rub-n-tug, you're paying for a warm mouth, not a punching bag.”

Charlie tries to push himself up but Minkyung kicks him in the stomach and he drops back down. She kneels down and yanks him up by his hair, forcing him to look at her. There’s blood  running out of his nose and his face is already starting to bruise. 

“Don’t ever come back to my coffee house.” 

Yaebin crosses her arms and leans back on her heels as she watches Minkyung drop Charlie’s head and get to her feet. 

“Have a good night,” she says, waving to the other two guys, who are staring at their friend, frozen in shock. Minkyung throws an arm around her shoulders and herds her back down the street. “You’re hot when you’re angry.” 

Minkyung laughs. “Fuck off.” 

“You are! It’s super sexy when you beat people up,” Yaebin gushes, grinning up at her girlfriend. 

“You’re so fucking weird,” Minkyung says. “I barely touched him.” 

“You broke his face,” Yaebin says. 

“Babe, you know what would have happened if I really wanted to break his face.” 

Yaebin just reaches up to grab Minkyung’s hand and lace their fingers together. Her knuckles are bruised but it’s definitely not from punching Charlie Bauer in the stomach. “You feeling better?”

“I always feel better when you come home,” Minkyung says, leaning down to kiss the top of Yaebin’s head. It’s incredibly corny but the soft way Minkyung said it makes it feel genuine. 

“I love you,” Yaebin says. 

They stop in front of the house and Minkyung leans down to kiss Yaebin, soft and sweet. It’s not quite the response that Yaebin was hoping for, but she’ll take what she can get. She rises up onto her toes and puts her hands on Minkyung’s shoulders and kisses her again. Minkyung smiles a little, like she wasn’t expecting to get another one, and rests her hands on Yaebin’s waist. 

The porch lights come on then, blindingly bright, and Minkyung pulls away with a tired sigh. Yaebin holds a hand in front of her eyes and squints at the door. 

“You two,” Mingyu’s voice booms out from a megaphone, “are disgusting. Get inside the damn house before the neighbors call the cops on us for public fucking indecency.” 

“Fuck you!” Minkyung yells back and Yaebin laughs. 

“We better go inside,” she says, grabbing Minkyung’s hand again. 

“If we must,” Minkyung breathes out and they start up the driveway. 

 

iii.

Yaebin is woken up by her phone buzzing uncontrollably, getting closer and closer to the edge of the bed. She fumbles around to grab it and picks up without bothering to check who it is. There’s only one type of call that she gets at this time of night. 

“Hey.” Minkyung’s voice is small and tinny through the phone. “Did I wake you?” 

“Uh, yeah, it’s two in the morning,” Yaebin says. She rubs her eyes. “Is everything okay?” 

“We’re on our way back, I couldn’t sleep.” Minkyung, Mingyu, and Joshua have been away on a job that Yaebin didn’t ask about because she didn’t want to know for the past three days, somewhere up north in the strange, dry hills of central California. “Kept thinking of you.” 

Yaebin rolls over on her bed to lie on her stomach and twirls a lock of hair around her finger, feeling every bit like a stereotypical teenage girl on a landline phone with her crush. “Yeah? What about me?” 

“Well, nothing sexy, because I’m in a car with my brother and my cousin, so you can stop with that tone,” Minkyung says flatly, and Yaebin can hear Mingyu say something and Minkyung snaps back at him. “Anyways. What did you do today?” 

“Work, then lunch with my sister, and then I had to take Eunwoo to a doctor’s appointment,” Yaebin lists off. “I had a very lonely dinner.” 

“Are you in my house?” Minkyung asks, and it sounds like she’s laughing. 

Yaebin looks at the light blue curtains pulled shut across the window. “Where the hell else would I be?” 

“In your own home,” Minkyung says. “Where you live.” 

“That place doesn’t have blankets that smell like you.” 

Minkyung snorts. “Oh, god, that was terrible.” 

“I’m kidding but I’m not,” Yaebin says. “I miss you so much.” 

They talk for a while. Yaebin tells Minkyung about the television shows and movies that she’s been watching and they discuss what to have for lunch when Minkyung gets back, and Minkyung puts her on speaker for a little bit so Mingyu can join the conversation while he’s driving. 

Being able to hear Minkyung’s voice, listen to the twins bicker as they always do, almost makes Yaebin forget that there’s no one next to her in the bed. 

“We’re getting gas now, I gotta go,” Minkyung says eventually. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Okay, bye,” Yaebin mumbles, her eyes drooping closed. “Love you.” 

“Mm-hmm.” 

Minkyung hangs up and Yaebin falls back asleep.

 

iv.

It’s unbearably hot, even for a coastal city in California, because of, like, global warming, and Minkyung and Mingyu don’t pay for air conditioning because they’re cheap, so Yaebin spends her time sitting on the floor in front of a fan turned on to the highest setting with a popsicle stuck between her teeth. 

Eunwoo spins around on the desk chair she’s sitting on. “If air pressure is affected by temperature, wouldn’t jetstreams change sometimes because, like, the Earth spins, so it gets colder at night because the sun isn’t there, so air pressure would change and air currents would change?”

“What the fuck?” Yaebin replies, frowning. “Why - how - what the fuck?” 

“No, because, like, the Japanese discovered the jetstream over the Pacific, right, and they made those balloon things to bomb the US and some of them made it but, like, wouldn’t the jetstream be perpetually changing because of, like, night and day, and shit like that?” Eunwoo continues. “So, like, basically, jetstreams aren’t even real, like, wind just blows the way it blows when it wants to because of pressure and shit.” 

“Oh my god, please stop talking, my brain is literally the size of a peanut,” Yaebin says, closing her eyes. “I don’t even know what a jetstream is.” 

“A jetstream is like a river, but with wind,” Eunwoo explains. “Up in the sky. The Japanese found the one above the Pacific because they were messing around with hot air balloons and they sent some over to bomb the US and some made it because of, like, the jetstream, but no one ever talks about it or remembers it because the government told anyone who saw it to keep it on the downlow, but like, this one time, there was this tiny town in, like, I don’t know, middle America, and a balloon fell there and all these Sunday school kids went out to look at it, and it exploded, and they all fucking died -”

“Eunwoo, get the fuck out of my house,” Minkyung says, kicking open the door to her bedroom. 

Eunwoo looks over at her. “Fuck off, I’m hanging out with my friend.” 

“Yeah, not anymore, get out,” Minkyung says. She points to the stairs. “Leave.” 

“Fine, you know what, fuck you, Seungkwan has air conditioning,” Eunwoo says as she gets up to leave. She sticks her tongue out at Minkyung. “You don’t know what you’re losing.” 

“I know exactly what I’m losing, thanks,” Minkyung says. She steps into the room and sits down on the bed, looking down at Yaebin. “What was she talking about?” 

“Fucking jetstreams or something? I don’t know,” Yaebin says. “Dude, it’s so hot, why can’t we just get air conditioning?” 

“You have a fan right there,” Minkyung points out. 

Yaebin turns to glare at her. “It’s one hundred and eight degrees, asshole, this fan from H-Mart is barely doing anything.” 

“Um, fuck you, it’s from Bed, Bath and Beyond.”

Yaebin watches Minkyung change out of the long sleeve shirt and jeans that she’d been wearing that morning for whatever reason, and silently admires her proportions. It might be the way the sun highlights the contours of her face or how the slight breeze coming in through the open window plays with her hair or it might just be because Yaebin is neck deep in love with her, but Minkyung looks beautiful. 

When Minkyung finishes changing, pulling a tank top over her head, she blinks over at Yaebin and blushes a soft red. “Um.”

“Hi,” Yaebin says.

“Hey.” Minkyung shifts her gaze for a moment, the flush spreading to her ears, before she says, “You are such a fucking creep.”

Yaebin quirks an eyebrow and sits up straight. “What, I can’t admire what’s mine?” 

Minkyung laughs, running a hand through her hair before lacing her fingers on her head. “‘Admiring’ my ass, you’re looking at me like the  _ Finding Nemo _ shark. You gonna eat me?”

“I’d like to,” Yaebin admits, and Minkyung throws a pillow at her. “What was that for?” 

“That was for you being a weirdo.” 

“I’m not that weird,” Yaebin protests. “I just love you a lot.” 

Minkyung doesn’t say anything and crosses the room to get to the bathroom. Yaebin sighs and turns back to the fan, letting it blow her wispy bangs up from her forehead. 

 

v.

It’s July 29 and the house is more crowded than it’s probably been in years.  Mingyu has so many friends, and then his friends have friends, and they’d extended invitations to some of their ‘business associates’, so there’s just a lot going on. Minkyung never wanted a party but it’s Mingyu’s birthday as well, so compromises must be made.

Kyungwon and Joshua are playing flip cup in the kitchen when Yaebin comes through to throw away her empty paper plate and Kyungwon is absolutely destroying Joshua, and Mingyu, who is leaning back against the counter, puts his hand in Yaebin’s back pocket and spins her around to face him. 

“You enjoying yourself?” he asks loudly over the music and the talking. 

She shrugs. “I’d be having a lot more fun if you’d let me find my girlfriend.” 

Mingyu rolls his eyes. “She’s such a drag about these things, she’s probably in your room pouting or whatever. Come on, wanna play beer pong once they’re done? I’m a total boss.”

“I’m sure you are, but I can’t drink on my meds,” Yaebin reminds him, punching his shoulder. “Maybe another time with Gatorade.” 

“God, you two really are meant for each other,” Mingyu mumbles. 

Yaebin grins. “We are.” 

“Okay, fuck off,” Mingyu says lightheartedly, pushing her away. She wishes him a happy birthday and pinches his cheek before leaving the kitchen. 

Yaebin finds Minkyung sulking on the barcalounger in the living room, nursing a lukewarm bottle of Modelo, and squishes herself to fit into the seat with her. The rickety old chair drops, the backrest falling back and the legrest flipping up, and they end up with their legs tangled and Yaebin tucked underneath Minkyung’s arm. 

“Graceful as always, I see,” Minkyung remarks. 

Yaebin doesn’t say anything, just tucks her face into Minkyung’s neck and presses her lips softly against her collarbone. Minkyung smells of lavender and soap and fire, and she holds Yaebin like she’s delicate. There are people on the couch playing Super Smash Bros. and chattering, intoxicated friends all around them, but all Yaebin can see, taste, feel, and touch is just Minkyung. She places her hand on Minkyung’s chest, above her heart, and listens to her steady breathing, the beat of her pulse like a baseline of a lullaby, and she closes her eyes, and all she can think of is this. 

Absentmindedly, Minkyung leans over to put her beer down on the floor beside them and brings her newly freed hand up to trace Yaebin’s jawline down to her throat, trailing her perfectly manicured nails along her skin like she’s painting her. Yaebin opens her eyes and she looks at Minkyung and nothing else. 

Finally, Minkyung leans forward through those few inches of blank space to press her lips against Yaebin’s, and the rest of the world falls away. There’s only this, and this, and this. 

A few seconds pass and Minkyung pulls back to press their foreheads together. “I’m gonna go get something to eat.” 

Yaebin shifts to lean back against the armrest. “Okay.” 

“Save my seat.” Minkyung untangles herself from Yaebin’s limbs and presses a quick kiss to the top of her head before leaving for the kitchen. 

Yaebin doesn’t move for a bit and then puts the leg rest of the chair down so she can set her feet on the floor as she watches the Super Smash Bros. tournament. 

Someone takes a seat on the ottoman a couple feet away, shifting to get closer, and Yaebin turns to see a handsome young man, one of the coffee house bouncers, who she’d helped with a stab wound a couple weeks ago. 

“Hey,” she says. “Jaehyun, right? How’s your shoulder?” 

He smiles widely. “Great, thanks to you.” 

“I’m glad,” Yaebin says, because she truly does not know what else to say. 

They sit in silence for a little bit before Jaehyun shifts even closer, so their knees are almost touching and Yaebin stares in curious confusion at the small space between them. 

“Do you have anything to drink? Do you want me to get you something?” he asks. 

“No. No, thank you, I’m good,” Yaebin says quickly. “But thank you.” 

“I’ve been meaning to get you alone,” Jaehyun says. “I wanted to ask - I’d like to take you out sometime.” 

Yaebin can barely process what he’s saying. “What, like, to Dave and Busters or something?”

“No,” Jaehyun chuckles, and he has cute dimples, but Yaebin can’t really think about that right now. “Like, to dinner, maybe a movie, you know. A date.” 

His words echo in her head like her skull is an empty cave. Does he not know? How does he not know? The shift in power from Kim Yoosung to his twins was literally because of her, everyone knows. 

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m - I don’t like boys like that, I’m very sorry.” 

Jaehyun doesn’t look convinced. “The way you touched - come on, you couldn’t stop looking at my chest, you were all over me.” 

“There was a knife in your upper pectoral, there wasn’t really anywhere else to be looking,” Yaebin replies. She tries to keep her voice calm because she doesn’t know what he could do to her if he gets upset. “I’m with Minkyung, we’ve been together for years.” 

“This life can’t be what you want,” Jaehyun insists. “Please excuse me, but she is nothing like you. She’s cold and callous, and she treats you like you’re her property. I could get us both out of here.” 

Yaebin is genuinely speechless. They’ve had their fair share of naysayers but this is just strange. 

“Um,” she says. “I’m super sorry, but I love Minkyung, and I am never going to feel that way about you.”

“You deserve better,” Jaehyun continues. He’s not getting it. “I could treat you better, I’ll show you.” 

Yaebin decides she’s heard enough and gets to her feet. “Dude, I fucking said no, and if Minkyung hears about this, she will kill you, so just let it go.” 

“I can’t,” Jaehyun says. “I won’t give up, I’ll fight for you.” 

“Yeah, okay,” Yaebin says. She walks away and shudders, rubbing her arms as if she’s cold, and she is. 

Fucking men. 

 

+i. 

Minkyung asked Yaebin to watch the laundromat for a couple of hours. She didn’t ask her to collect anything or wait for anyone, she just asked her to sit at the counter and give people quarters. Generally, the person at the counter at the laundromat doesn’t do anything anyways, since Joshua’s people are the ones who do the actual money washing. Nothing was supposed to happen today, just the fifteen year old who comes in to wash, like, fourteen pairs of soccer socks every Friday afternoon, it should have been easy. 

So why the fuck isn’t Yaebin at the fucking laundromat? 

“What’s the point of her having a goddamn phone if she doesn’t fucking use it?” Minkyung says, angrily, to Mingyu, who is sitting on the counter, his legs so long that his feet touch the floor, in a similar mood. “Where the hell is she?” 

“Yeah, you’d like to know, wouldn’t you?” Mingyu scoffs. 

Minkyung stops pacing to glare at him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” 

“It means that maybe you’d know a thing or two about your own fucking girlfriend if you ever paid attention to her,” Mingyu snaps. 

“Of course I pay attention to her! I’m with her every single day!” 

“Okay, yeah, you’re with her, but do you see her? Do you listen to her? Do you even know what her life has been like for the past three months?” Mingyu stands up, crossing his arms. “She exists outside of you.” 

“I know that!” Minkyung is almost yelling. “God, of course I know that, how can you act like I don’t care about her? You’re not her girlfriend -”

“No, I’m her best friend,” Mingyu says harshly. “Minkyung, she loves you so much, the least you could do is love her back.” 

“I do!” Minkyung says. 

“Then fucking tell her,” Mingyu says. “Because she doesn’t owe you anything and she doesn’t have to wait for you to pick up your balls.” 

Minkyung exhales sharply and shakes her head. “Fuck you, man. I’m gonna go find my girlfriend.” 

Mingyu doesn’t say anything as she leaves. She takes the car parked out front and heads out of town to find Eunwoo first. If Yaebin didn’t tell Minkyung or Mingyu where she went, she probably told Eunwoo. 

Eunwoo has a job doing clerical work at a federal building in Torrance and it takes her twenty minutes to get there with the afternoon traffic. She pulls up and parks in one of the handicap spots, and rushes in without paying the security guards any attention. 

Fortunately, Eunwoo is walking briskly across the lobby with a stack of files in her arms, and she sees Minkyung. She rushes over and apologizes to the security guards as she pulls Minkyung along with her to the stairs. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” she whispers angrily. “The fucking FBI works out of here, are you crazy?” 

“Where is Yaebin?” Minkyung asks. 

Eunwoo softens from mildly annoyed to worried. “What? Why? Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know, she left the laundromat without telling anyone and we don’t know where she is and she won’t pick up her phone or answer my texts,” Minkyung explains as calmly as she can. “Did she tell you she had anything to do today?” 

“No, I haven’t talked to her since yesterday,” Eunwoo says. 

“What did she say?”  

“I don’t know, something about this dude who was hitting on her at the party,” Eunwoo says. She backs through a frosted glass door and gives a nod to the receptionist to signal that Minkyung is cool. “Like, he asked her out or something? And when she said no, he said he’d fight for her. It creeped her out hard.” 

Minkyung doesn’t remember that happening or Yaebin telling her anything about it. Yaebin probably wouldn’t tell her about it, since she obviously would have gotten upset. She follows Eunwoo to a metal cabinet in the back of the room where she starts sorting the files. “Did she say who it was? Is it someone we know?” 

“Coffee house bouncer, I think, I don’t think she told me his name, but she said he had dimples,” Eunwoo says, gesturing around her face. “You think he could have done something to her?” 

“Fuck if I know,” Minkyung says. “Thanks, man, I’ll keep you updated.” 

Eunwoo doesn’t get a chance to say goodbye because Minkyung is already running out of the building, in her car, and on her way to the coffee house. 

Coffee house bouncer with dimples is a pretty vague description, since dimples aren’t particularly rare, and the coffee house has quite a few rotating bouncers. If he works at the coffee house, chances are he definitely knows that Minkyung and Yaebin are together, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to even consider asking Yaebin out. If he’s crazy enough to do that, then he could have done anything to Yaebin by now. 

She pulls up in the alley behind the coffee house and enters through the back. There are a few girls working because the rub-n-tug is never closed, and the rest are sitting idly in their stalls. Minkyung waves to them and they give her lukewarm acknowledgement. 

She pulls out a stool at the bar where Yewon and Kyungwon are chatting. “I need a list of all the bouncers that came to the party.” 

“The fuck? Why would we know that?” Kyungwon says, frowning. 

“I’m not asking you, dipshit, I’m asking Yewon, the person I pay to know everything about everyone,” Minkyung says, tapping the bar. She points at Yewon. “Names, motherfucker.” 

Yewon purses her lips as she thinks. “Dongho, Jinwoo, Vernon, Hoseok, and Jaebum, and Jaehyun came but he left a little early, before we did the cake.”

“Do you know if any of them have ever talked to Yaebin?” Minkyung asks. “You know, other than Dongho.”

“Vernon was in that volunteering club with her in high school,” Yewon says. 

“Interact,” Kyungwon muses, nodding. 

“Okay, so not him, other than him,” Minkyung says, glaring at Kyungwon. 

“Why?” Yewon asks. “Did something happen?”

“I don’t know where Yaebin is, I need you to tell me which of the bouncers talks to her,” Minkyung says. 

Kyungwon frowns. “You think one of them did something to her? Why?” 

“That’s what I’m trying to fucking figure out here, dumbass,” Minkyung snaps. 

“That white girl stabbed Jaehyun with scissors when she was first brought in a couple weeks ago, and Yaebin came in to look at it,” Yewon says. “He was really freaked out, she helped to calm him down.” 

“Is Jaehyun working today?” Minkyung asks. 

“White girl stabbed him?” Kyungwon asks. 

Yewon shakes her head. “No, he got his buddy, Sicheng, to cover for him today. He’s upstairs regulating the high end clients.” 

“Thank you, I love you, I owe you,” Minkyung says, leaning over the bar to grab Yewon’s face and kiss her forehead. “Thank you so much. Do not follow me, Kyungwon.” 

“The fuck - I could help you!” Kyungwon calls after her as she runs up the stairs. 

“You could also make things worse with your bigass mouth,” Minkyung replies. “Love ya, can’t risk it, see you soon.” 

When she gets to the top of the stairs, Sicheng is sitting behind a rickety desk by a thick, locked door, and he looks up when she approaches him. The downstairs stalls are used for handjobs and blowjobs, and the upstairs rooms are for the actual banging - the high end clients. It wasn’t that hard to get a license for a massage parlor, especially if she pretended to be fresh off the boat and let the racist ass county clerk assume she was Thai. 

“Hey, boss,” Sicheng says, grinning handsomely. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” 

“Your bro, Jaehyun, where is he?” Minkyung asks. 

“Back in our apartment with a girl or something,” Sicheng says easily. “He said I can’t come back till tomorrow morning.” 

Minkyung sighs and rips a page off of the receipt pad on the desk. “Address.” 

“Uh.” Sicheng raises his eyebrows in confusion. “What?” 

“Give me your damn address,” Minkyung snaps. 

Sicheng quickly writes it down and gives it to her. “Can I ask what’s going on?” 

“You’re gonna have to start looking for a new roommate real soon,” Minkyung tells him, pocketing the address. “Thanks, man.” 

She leaves the coffee house, making sure to let Kyungwon that no, she still doesn’t need help, and calls Mingyu as she starts driving. 

“What’s up, motherfucker?” Mingyu greets. 

“I think she’s with Jaehyun,” Minkyung says. 

There’s a thoughtful silence. “Okay. And why is that?” 

“He asked her out at the party and said he’d fight for her when she said no, he got Sicheng to cover for him today, said he was having a girl over,” Minkyung rattles off. “I’m on my way to their apartment right now.” 

“Okay,” Mingyu says. “I’m sorry about saying that you don’t pay attention to Yaebin, I know how much you like her.” 

“No, you were right,” Minkyung says. “I should have known about all this shit with Jaehyun.” 

“It’s not your fault. You know that it’s not your fault, right?” 

“She’s been taken from me right under my nose twice now,” Minkyung states. “I literally run an underground empire, and I can’t even protect my own girlfriend.” 

“Dude, seriously, it’s not your fault,” Mingyu insists. “Jaehyun and Dad are both crazy. There’s nothing you could have done.” 

“I should have been there,” Minkyung says. “And I wasn’t. That’s on me. I have to fix this.” 

“Minkyung, come on, do you even have a plan? He could be a complete psychopath, if he’s even the one that took her. Don’t go getting yourself killed because you have some weird guilt complex.” 

“I don’t have a complex, and I didn’t call you for advice,” Minkyung snaps. 

Mingyu sighs loudly. “Send me the address, I’ll come get you if I haven’t heard from you in two hours.” 

He hangs up and Minkyung is alone with her thoughts for ten minutes until she gets to the apartment complex on Hollypark Drive in Inglewood. It’s a surprisingly nice place for Inglewood and Minkyung pulls up to the metal fence before getting out and looking at the keypad. She pulls her phone out again and calls Sicheng. 

“Hey, boss, you there?” he says. 

“What’s the passcode to get through the gate?” she asks. 

“One three seven nine,” Sicheng tells her without hesitating. “What’s this all about?” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Minkyung says. “You’ll be fine.” 

The whole place is eerily quiet as she makes her way to find their unit (#4). There’s no one else on the grounds. She peers through a window and she can see Jaehyun’s silhouette moving around. There’s music playing and she can hear him talking, but it’s just a low rumble, she can’t hear his actual words. 

Then, she hears a familiar laugh, and her blood runs cold. She moves to another window that looks into what looks like a dining room and she can see Yaebin sitting at a table, smiling like she’s just been told a joke, with a plate of food in front of her. It’s shockingly domestic and normal, like they’re just a regular couple having dinner together, like there’s nothing wrong. Yaebin says something in response to Jaehyun and then they’re both laughing and Minkyung can’t tell what the fuck is going on. 

Jaehyun leaves the room again and Yaebin’s face falls. She looks out the window and her eyes widen when she sees Minkyung. Minkyung moves her hands around as if to ask what is happening and Yaebin just shakes her head and motions for Minkyung to leave. Jaehyun comes back with a bottle of wine and Yaebin immediately smiles for him. 

Minkyung crouches under the window and goes through the possibilities in her mind. Jaehyun invited her over and she was too afraid to say no so she’s just trying to make it through the night? Minkyung is aware of how scary it is to turn down a man, all women are. She isn’t upset with Yaebin for playing along, but she’s not going to leave her like this. 

The window above her slides open and she almost screams. 

“Have you ever been to the East coast?” Jaehyun’s voice asks and Minkyung frowns. What the fuck are they talking about?

“No,” Yaebin replies. “I want to, though, I’ve always wanted to go to New York.” 

“Oh, New York is amazing. I used to go with my parents pretty often, it’s about a two hour drive from where we lived in Connecticut.” 

Minkyung literally cannot believe that they are sitting there talking about how long it takes to drive from Connecticut to New York. She doesn’t think that she’ll be able to get into the apartment without Jaehyun noticing, so she’ll have to act pretty quickly once she gets in. She curses under her breath when she realizes that she didn’t bring any weapons. She crawls around looking for something to use and eventually settles on a tire iron that’s lying by the apartment next to them. 

When she gets back to the window to see what’s going on, she sees Yaebin start coughing. Jaehyun gets up, obviously worried, and moves around the table to put a hand on her back. Yaebin attempts to waves him off but he stays when she keeps coughing. Minkyung narrows her eyes and watches as Yaebin’s hand slowly moves across the table, grabs a steak knife, and stabs Jaehyun in the stomach. 

Minkyung takes that as her cue to break open the window and jump in, disregarding the jagged glass that tears through the skin of her arm. 

“You lying bitch!” Jaehyun yells, but Minkyung wacks him in the head with her tire iron before he can do anything, and he falls to the ground, unconscious. 

Yaebin runs around the table and jumps into Minkyung’s arms. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, he came in with a gun and he broke my phone, I didn’t know what to do -”

“It’s okay, you did great, you’re gonna be fine,” Minkyung assures her, holding her just as tightly. “I should have done something sooner.”

“I thought -” Yaebin hiccups. “I thought he was going to kill me.”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen, I would never let that happen. I -” Minkyung pulls away and grabs Yaebin’s face so that they can look at each other. Yaebin’s eyes are shining with tears, her nose is red, and her hands are shaking where they’re gripping Minkyung’s shoulders, and Minkyung’s heart breaks because she’s seen Yaebin like this before, and she’d promised that it would never happen again, but it did. “I love you.” 

Yaebin manages a weak smile. “For real?” 

“Yes, for real, you dummy,” Minkyung laughs, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

Jaehyun groans and they both jump. 

“Shit, we gotta get out of here,” Minkyung says. She drops the tire iron and grabs Yaebin’s hand. They leave the apartment together, and Yaebin presses into Minkyung’s side like she’s trying to get as close to her as possible. 

“How’d you find me?” Yaebin asks. 

“I went around asking questions, like a fucking cop,” Minkyung says as they get to the car. “I visited Eunwoo at her literal government job.” 

“Damn, dude, the FBI works there,” Yaebin says. 

Minkyung raises her eyebrows at her. “Yeah, I know.” 

Yaebin laughs, and keeps talking, and Minkyung can hear the slight shake in her voice, but doesn’t stop her. She knows that she’s supposed to keep her eyes on the road while she drives, but her love is so bright that all she can see is Yaebin. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> visit me on Tumblr @yuhaholic!
> 
> you can read about the WWII Japanese hot air balloons [here< /a >](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/130527-map-video-balloon-bomb-wwii-japanese-air-current-jet-stream/)


End file.
